Dev.D 1 Dev.D Dev D Theatrical release poster Directed by Anurag Kashyap Produced by Ronnie Screwvala Written by Anurag Kashyap Vikramaditya Motwane Based on Devdas by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay Starring Abhay Deol Mahie Gill Kalki Koechlin Music by Amit Trivedi Cinematography Rajeev Ravi Edited by Aarti Bajaj Release date(s) •• 6 February 2009 Running time 144 min Budget 60 million (US$1.0 million) Box office 215.0 million (US$3.6 million) (domestic gross) Dev.D is an Indian romantic drama film released on 6 February 2009. Written and directed by Anurag Kashyap, it is a modern-day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic Bengali novel Devdas,[1] previously adapted for the screen by P.C. Barua and Bimal Roy and more recently by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.[2] Dev.D was embraced by the media, critics and public. The film is set in contemporary Punjab and Delhi, where familial ties are negotiated by the traditions of patriarchy and marriages are reduced to a game of power and "honour". Plot Dev (Abhay Deol) is the son of a rich businessman. He and Paro (Mahi Gill) are childhood sweethearts. But Dev, being an insecure narcissist, instead of acknowledging her affection and care, nudges Paro over frivolous things. Dev is sent to London for higher studies when his father senses how spoilt his son is. While separated by distance, Paro and Dev's youthful love only blossoms more. Dev arrives in Chandigarh to meet Paro. Their endeavor to make love makes for some dark comic moments. The seeds of suspicion are sown here, which the couple will never be able to weed out for a lifetime. When Dev hears rumours about Paro, he immediately believes them and ditches her. What makes them fall apart is mutual suspicion and an essentially male vision of how a woman should conduct herself sexually. Paro turns her back on him when she hears him insult her and agrees to marry whoever her parents choose. On her wedding day, he realizes that the rumors were false. But his ego doesn't let him accept his mistake, and he lets her marry someone else. Enter Chanda aka Leni (Kalki Koechlin). A Delhi student of half-European descent, a date with her much older boyfriend lands Leni in an MMS scandal. Her father commits suicide as he feels humiliated by his daughter's reputation. She is disowned by her family. Refusing to live a life of shame and ridicule with her family, she comes back to Delhi where she works as a prostitute at night, while continuing with her studies during the day. She adopts the nickname Chanda for her profession. Her 'foreign' looks mean her services are reserved for the highest-paying Dev.D 2 customers and she finds some dignity and independence in the new way of living. One night a customer is brought to her room in half-conscious state — it turns out to be Dev. Dev, tormented by Paro’s wedding, has been seeking refuge in alcohol and drugs. He finds some solace with Chanda but is unable to forget Paro. Once after he calls Paro's husband in the middle of the night, she visits him at the cheap lodge where he is staying. She shows her love by taking care of him but spurns his attempts at physical intimacy. The meeting ends on a bitter note, after which Paro goes back to her married life and Dev resolves to go back to Chanda; confronted by the reality of her profession, he abandons her, too. It is only months later, after hitting an all-time low in an aimless life, that he gets a wake-up call and decides to put his act together. He seeks Chanda once again and, with her help, sets out to start life afresh. Cultural references • Kalki's character is a modern adaptation of Chandramukhi, who was most recently played by Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas. In the film, the young Leni is shown to be a fan of Madhuri's, listening to the songs of Chandramukhi. When she takes up prostitution as profession, she adopts the name Chandramukhi or Chanda, in honor of the character. • Chanda's back story in which she gets embroiled in an MMS scandal while in school is a reference to a similar scandal that took place at a leading Delhi school i.e. Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram in 2004.Wikipedia:Citation needed • Later in the film, when Dev is depressed after losing both Paro and Chanda, he is driving his new BMW while heavily drunk. This is a reference to the Sanjeev Nanda BMW hit-and-run case in 1999.Wikipedia:Citation needed Cast • Abhay Deol as Dev Singh Dhillon • Kalki Koechlin as Leni/Chandramukhi (Chanda) • Mahi Gill as Parminder (Paro) • Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Chunnilal • Parakh Madan as Rasika •• Asim Sharma as Bhuvan (Paro's husband) •• Gurkirtan as Sattu (Dev's father) •• Satwant Kaur as Dev's mother •• Binnu Dhillon as Dev's brother •• Kuldeep Sharma as Manager Uncle (Paro's father) •• Sanjay Kumar as Leni's father •• Helen Jones as Leni's mother •• Bimal Barua as the Lawyer •• Aekansh Vats as Junior Dev •• Sasha Shetty as Junior Paro •• Anjum Batra as Sunil •• as the angry bus passenger Dev :Dev.D is Devendra Singh Dhillon, the protagonist of the film. Son of a rich industrialist from Punjab, the sugar baron. He's brash, arrogant, ill-mannered, demanding, lusty, impulsive and yes, self-destructive. Dev loses his chance of marrying his childhood sweetheart Paro due to a misunderstanding. After she gets married elsewhere, starts Dev’s path of self-pity and his emergence as a drug addict, alcoholic and chain smoker in Delhi now financed by a bed-ridden and guilt-ridden father. Through a pimp Chunni, he meets Chanda, a sex worker. She befriends a vulnerable Dev and gradually falls in love with him. Dev likes her too but his penchant for self-destruction prevents Dev.D 3 him and Chanda from truly getting together. Dev, in the meanwhile, finds lost love Paro. She visits him and washes and cleans for him but does not make herself available for his sexual use. A sexually rejected Dev indulges in further self-pity and substance abuse, kills seven in a hit-and-run, does not reach home before the death of his father, wastes himself and his family’s money and ends up, literally, on the road, narrowly escaping death by a drunk driver. He realizes life could be short; he already was on the lesson learning experience since some time, with all past memories of both Paro and Chanda. Dev tells Chanda how he never actually loved Paro and they live happily thereafter. Paro : Paro is Parminder, a rustic Punjabi girl, who handles family and farms, household and its men with the same élan. She can be like a man when it needs to be and delicate like a woman when it needs to be. Paro is a free spirit riding high on life with nothing but an indestructible faith in her love for Dev. She is from a small family that has been close to Dev's family since childhood. She always had love for Dev, which was never visible in Dev. That faith is shattered in a major. A reason, why her happiness is cut short when Dev comes to know from Sunil that she sleeps with him. Dev easily accepts it, and rejects her. Paro seeks revenge in a different way, she accepts to marry an older man with children. Paro picks up the threads of her life and moves on with a lot of grit and dignity and she hopes Dev can do the same. Mahi’s Punjabi diction is very good, plus she makes a very good debut as quite an aggressive girl with emotional highlights. Chanda/Lenni : Leni likes to live her life on the edge - a rich student with hyperactive hormones and a penchant for adventure. She comes across as a sweet, cute and innocent school going girl. After a devastating MMS scandal she's abandoned by her family and is forced into isolation. A mistake of trusting her boy-friend shatters her life completely. Nobody could understand her, not even her parents who just wanted to avoid any humility her act may cause them, hence going away from Delhi. After not bearing the sin, her father realized he had committed by watching her MMS, he decides to free himself and let Leni and his wife struggle. Leni's mother isn’t strong enough to manage her alone, sending her to his father's village. Eventually, Leni runs off, back to Delhi where it all started for her. As a runaway she finds shelter with Chunni a pimp. With great determination and inner strength she adopts an alter ego - Chanda. As Chanda she gets to be a high profile escort by night while Leni remains a college student by day. Chanda plays a fantasy girl; she is a different character every day. With coke in her head and money at her disposal, Leni/Chanda lives life on her own terms. Production The original idea of film was suggested by Abhay Deol to Anurag Kashyap, who then worked on the script along with Vikramaditya Motwane, using "news headlines about Generation X" to give a youth feel. Dev.D was produced by Ronnie Screwvala and shot in places including Paharganj in central Delhi.[3] For the scenes where Dev is high, British director Danny Boyle suggested the use of a still camera as Kashyap did not have the budget for special effects.[4] Development Anurag Kashyap did not want another remake of any of the nine films versions titled Devdas.[5][6] His version was created as a modern take on the 1917 original classic novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.